Hi all Just got a new portable hard drive and wondering what you guys use to backup your files/folders? Im used to just copying and pasting but wondering if it is worth giving software a go. I thought that I would be able to use WD Smartware software with my Seagate, but Im unable to find the free version so on the lookout for one equivalent. If no free ones, any best recommended paid ones? Would like features like file/folder sync, mirror copy of current pc status etc. Thanks
Built in is pretty good actually. Set aside a dedicated drive though for your backups as Windows will format it and you cant use it for anything else.
Thanks, never thought of looking there lol. Do you guys mean the Win 7 Backup version or File History? Any better one out of experience? Also with File History, would it work with an external hard drive usb 2 for an OS? (speed sufficient?)
AFAIK you can't restore your PC with File History, just files. It seems to work fine with my USB external HDD over USB 2. First time took a while but I just left it alone to do it's thing. Also, I don't recall File History needing to lock down the HDD, I can still put other things on it if I wish to from what I remember. I imagine the Backup option needs to take over you external drive, but from what I remember reading it'll do what you want, i.e. mirror copy of your entire PC and the ability to restore it at that point. No idea if you can restore individual files though. How much data (personal files) do you want to back up?
I'm aware that this is from 2014, but I've been looking working on some PCs recently (three Win 7s and one Win 8.1), and I decided to check the latest versions of backup programs. For free ones, the best appears to be EaseUS ToDo Backup, which has most features intact. The others lack one or more features for free versions, such as incremental backups or auto-cleaning of old backups.
